Motors FAQ ideas?

Soldato
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I've noticed that the same questions get asked over and over again around here. I foolishly made the suggestion in a recent scrappage scheme thread that we should have an FAQ sticky - some people took that as me volunteering to write one.

So I've got nothing better to do at the moment - what do we think should go into such a thread? My ideas so far:

- Insurance (places not on comparison sites, young persons advice etc)
- First cars
- Scrappage scheme
- Which sat nav
- Taxing new cars/MOTing etc

We could also maybe do a "best in class" for various types of cars - best small car, best family car, best performance car etc. Not sure if that would work though - the intention of an FAQ would be to keep things as factual as possible rather than subjective.

So what does everyone think - good idea, bad idea? What sort of stuff should go into it?
 
I like the idea, most other sub forums have fairly detailed guides.

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to general car maintenance, so it would be handy to have little do's and dont's etc.
 
I'd say only include things that are factual and in black and white, i.e. info on taxing cars, driving to MOTs and the like.

While generally things like fiestas are good suggestions for first cars, tomtoms are good Sat Navs etc, I'd say they're also the sort of thing which is down to personal opinion, circumstance, budget etc and need to be tailored to the person asking the question.
 
Completely agree about keeping it factual - certainly with the spec me threads there's always a different point of view and some out of the box suggestions, which is always good. Although we do seem to get quite regular "which sat nav" threads, which always end up with the same answer (TomTom one)...
 
There used to be a sticky with links to all the insurance companies and so forth. What happened to it.
 
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How to get your bike licence - an idiots guide.

With special notes made on emphasizing peoples ages and that they do need to do another theory test
 
I've noticed that the same questions get asked over and over again around here. I foolishly made the suggestion in a recent scrappage scheme thread that we should have an FAQ sticky - some people took that as me volunteering to write one.

So I've got nothing better to do at the moment - what do we think should go into such a thread? My ideas so far:

- Insurance (places not on comparison sites, young persons advice etc)
- First cars
- Scrappage scheme
- Which sat nav
- Taxing new cars/MOTing etc

We could also maybe do a "best in class" for various types of cars - best small car, best family car, best performance car etc. Not sure if that would work though - the intention of an FAQ would be to keep things as factual as possible rather than subjective.

So what does everyone think - good idea, bad idea? What sort of stuff should go into it?

- A collection of 'how to' guides for basic maintenance. Should be some good ones online already, rather than writing any
- A basic explanation of diesel/petrol economy
- Links to car magazine websites for news
- Links to places for auto sales (AT, PH, etc. Though obviously I'd imagine there'll be a glaring omission from the list)
- Explanation of why BMWs and Mondeos rock everything else is 'teh sux'.
 
Agreed - I think it has to be relevant and factual - nobody enjoys talking about tax and insurance (surely), so somewhere to keep all the boring stuff leaves more space for the fun stuff :)
 
- First cars

Don't think such info is objective tbh...

Different people like different things, some might care about plastics, some might not, some might like the exterior of one car, but other wont, some might have different ideas about what's comfort to them, some want performance, some want economy, some want bang for buck, some want handling, etcetc...

You can't just say ''just buy a fiesta/focus/mondeo'' as some might think it are the ugliest cars around, some might not care about the handling, etcetc...

- Insurance (places not on comparison sites, young persons advice etc)
- Scrappage scheme
- Taxing new cars/MOTing etc
Yeah.


Also useful, would be stuff like advice on fines, which ones can be ignored, etc...
Diesel vs Petrol vs LPG vs whatever ?
Basic maintenance + links to ''how to's''.
 
Maybe a list of recommended garages in different areas? But then you'd have to be careful of slander and biased opinions, plus:

You need to be careful that you don't put too much in there otherwise everyone will ignore it more than usual.

It'd be hard to decide what to put in and what to leave out...

So overall, a terrible suggestion by myself :D


However, you could simply state:

DO NOT GO TO CARCRAFT FFS

...fairly self explanatory I reckon ;)
 
- What to check when buying a car
- HPI Services
- Company car tax explained
- Where to obtain vehicle valuations
- link to the monster car cleaning thread
- Different car financing methods

Maybe you could chunk these up and have few key stickies?
 
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